Garden 2019

After a miserable wet winter with a couple of months that only had four or five days of sun It finally dried out here enough to get into my garden. The commercial farmers in this area also just are now getting into their fields and in a rush trying to beat the rains predicted today and tomorrow and some at the end of the week. I'm afraid I couldn't do enough to control the grass that plagues me and might have a repeat of last year with my sweet corn but I got to try anyway. This ground basically sat under water for almost four months and when it dried out was like cement. I have about half of the garden that is just coarsely broken up so maybe if it rains I can get it tilled and plant some other stuff later. We're going to see lots of empty fields down here this year or perhaps lots of cotton instead of corn and milo, it's too late for those crops. My plants were set Sunday and Monday as well as all the seeded rows and I spied some peas poking through this morning and expect the corn in a couple of days just in time for wind chills to be in the thirties and unseasonably cold temps for the next few days. We should rebound though later in the week and get back in the seventies.
The menu:
Celebrity Tomatoes / Better Boy Tomatoes
Hot Jalapeno Peppers / Sweet Green Peppers
G90 Sweet Corn
Spineless Okra
Hales Cantaloupes
Yellow Squash
Zucchini Squash
National Pickling Cucumbers
Blackeyed Peas
Contender Green Beans
I don't think I forgot anything and might add some more later when I get the rest in shape. I might try watermelons again.

Man, this years garden effort took a nose dive. I started to just let it lay this year however I like fresh vegetables and even a disaster usually yields a little bounty. This area stayed under water for almost four months and must have altered the soil because it no longer will work up and breathe. It's basically a clay pit. The cure would be many yards of compost. We have a cotton gin two miles from here and I might have to go buddy up with the guy that runs it and see if I can get several loads of hulls and trash hauled in. To top it off a deer or multiple deer found it and decided to eat tomato plants and then we have had some crazy rains. I was lucky and missed a couple of huge ones but we still got hammered a couple of times and this past week had six inches then blazing heat. Out of eighteen tomato plants I have five that might produce and the only other stuff that might make it is a few rows of corn I planted later and the cucumbers and I have gotten a little bit of squash. The green beans wilted and died after one of the deluges we had and grass has taken over the peas so I just have to see if they make anything. I'm going to have to bring my snake boots home just to get out there and pick if there is any. I got a little harvest this morning of cucumbers and squash and sent three grocery bags of squash with my wife this morning to her work. I hate to do it but I'm going out now and start mowing the bulk of the garden that's not growing to maybe thin out the chance of a rattler coming in there searching for rats.
This mornings pick

Some pictures today. You can tell I didn't use Roundup from all the grass. I actually ran a little tiller between the rows and fertilized once everything came up and boy did the grass take off when it started raining. I couldn't take it anymore and tried to mow some of it down but almost got stuck so I had to quit.
After I mowed some
A few rows of sweet corn that made it
Deer eaten tomato plant

We are wrapping up our spring garden this week. Wednesday it rained almost twelve inches and last night another half inch but we got most of everything picked before all this rain. I went ahead and pulled two rows of sweet corn yesterday and cut it off the cob for freezing. I still have six rows I planted later than yesterdays that should be ready pretty quick. Sure hope it doesn't sour or rot. I mowed the major portion down of my corn but it wasn't doing anything so that's the way it goes. If it would have all made it I would have some major work on my hands like years past. We picked a few blackeyed peas and they are already in the freezer for the winter, eight two cup packages to be exact and we have a table full to be shelled right now from yesterdays pick. I made Polish Dill Pickles and my wife has been making sweet and bread and butter style as well as some kind of squash pickles. That may be a bust, never had them. I guess enough sugar and vinegar and you can tolerate them. We ended up with enough tomatoes for 16 half pints of salsa and some for the table to slice and put on sandwiches. Home grown tomatoes are so different from store bought hot house varieties. Dang mockingbirds sure like them. I got a few pictures before we picked and some of the finished products. Sweet corn silks are really colorful sometimes and for some reason I didn't have one single worm in the ears. I didn't spray anything on it I guess the moths didn't make it this year in all the wind we had. What little damage I had was from a chinch bug looking insect and very few of them.
Pickle Factory
Finished
Wife's Canning
Blackeye's
G 90 Sweet Corn